I got distracted with finishing my Ph.D. and never finished my book. Now that many of the ideas have come to fruition in our economy, I hope to come back to it in 2018 and finally finish the book. Stay tuned.

It seems to me that when it comes to overcoming challenges, there are two type off people in the world. There are those that want to talk about the problem, and then those that want to find a solution.

80% of the people are focused on the problem, 80% of the time. Who are the 20% that focus on solutions? Those are the ones succeeding.

Are you creating something today? Your competition is. If your not deeply aware of the fact that there is always someone working, often harder than you, to disrupt whatever your good at, then you have already lost.

It is healthy to have a keen sense of paranoia about the fact that there is always a younger, more attuned, version of you out there somewhere that will eat your lunch if you don’t stay on top of your expertise. And they aren’t going to take you out from head on. Rather, they are going to hit you from the angle you least expect.

There is one endeavor you will never quit. One enterprise you will never stop investing in. One project you will never stop promoting. You.

Tomorrow when you wake up and open your eyes, ask yourself – What do I most want to do with my day? My life? Do that.

Starting businesses is so insanely difficult, that you need to invest in one that you can’t quit. One that you will never give up on. And the one enterprise that you never have an option to quit is – You. Do you. The rest will fall into place.

I am one of the best procrastinators. It is a skill I developed in college, and have refined over the years, to perfection. In addition, to infusing a task with excitement (or maybe, . . . horror), the practice of waiting until closer to a deadline allows me to think through an idea, pivot if necessary, and when the time come to get it done I can focus all of my energy on it.

The problem is that when there is no deadline some things simply never happen. We often call this procrastination, but, it isn’t. Rather, it is simply failing to start.

A friend of mine is a marketing genius. Kevin Franciose has been starting businesses, and marketing them for 30 years, and some of the ideas he comes up with are amazing.

A while back a young colleague of his asked for some advice as to how to get a job that was advertised. The young man was a helicopter pilot and wanted a special angle when applying for the job. He had been waiting for months for a call from the company. Kevin’s idea nailed it. He told him to buy a nice remote control helicopter. He might spend $500 he said, but, if he wanted the job, it was worth it.

Kevin told him to ship the new helicopter to the hiring manager at the company where he was applying, with a note. The note read: “Call me if you need help flying this.” he also included his resume. The guy got an interview, and the job.

In today’s world everybody has skills. To excel you have to set yourself apart with creativity.

Counting a life in days makes the numbers hard to grasp. When counting by months it doesn’t resonate from a practical standpoint. But, when you look at your life from the standpoint of weeks, the perspective becomes clear.

Tim Urban did a great Ted Talk and discussed the idea behind a life calendar that includes one box for every week of a ninety-year life. It is eye-opening.

How many weeks do you have left? Regardless of how many that number is, it isn’t enough to waste any.

When was the last time you found something that could really benefit you, without taking a risk? There’s no free lunch. Anything of value requires that you pay for it. And often the cost is taking a risk.

Not taking risks doesn’t just keep you from living your dreams. It keeps you from even getting started chasing them at all.